Articulation

Lyla walked around the house all weekend and practiced her favorite words: mama, no, hi, baby, and, every once in awhile, certainly not her favorite word by any stretch of the imagination, and she probably only says it out of charity or familial obligation or because her mama tells her to, dada.

She's good at mimicking, though. I can say something like "Daddy is my favorite parent," and she'll respond with something like "Da day."

Lyla can also technically say ball, though it comes out as "ba," and always a whisper. It's like she doesn't want the ball to hear her talk about him.

If you pay attention to what your mouth does when you say certain words, you can see how it would be hard for a baby to say ball. Okay, put your lips together like you're going to say "ma," but push them together slightly before making a sound, so it comes out "ba." Now do the same thing but give it some air, and you get "pa."

No wonder babies say mama first. It's simple. All you do is make sound while opening and closing your mouth. Go ahead, try it at your computer; no one will think you're crazy, I promise. The process of saying mama is not nearly as fancy, by the way, as making sound while bouncing the tip of your tongue off the alveolar ridge of your mouth, which is the hardship you go through to say dada.

Which is why Lyla doesn't say dada as much as mama. I'm just saying.